Randolph Churchill attending the unveiling of a bust of his great-grandfather Winston Churchill in Jerusalem, Nov. 4, 2012 Photo by Emil Salman
Posted on 03/24/2013 5:16:01 PM PDT by dennisw
'Strange that no major Israeli street or building is named for him,' says British trustee of the Jerusalem Foundation.
Winston Churchill was probably the most prominent non-Jewish supporter of the Zionist movement throughout the first half of the 20th century, yet his memory is barely commemorated in Israel. This was rectified Sunday when the Jerusalem Foundation, in cooperation with the local municipality, unveiled a new bust of Churchill in the Moses Montefiore Garden at Mishkenot Sha'ananim in the center of the capital.
The relationship between Churchill and the Zionist movement goes back to the warm friendships he and his father, Lord Randolph Churchill, had with Jewish figures in the late 19th century. These friendships were noted by many of their contemporaries in a period during which anti-Semitism was still prevalent, and even fashionable, among the British upper class. The young Churchill's relationship with the British Jewish community was taken to a different level in 1904 when he was elected to the House of Commons representing the constituency of Manchester North West, where a third of the voters were Jewish. His biggest supporters were the leaders of the Jewish community, and he and his wife Clementine became regular visitors to Jewish events.
Even after Churchill moved to a different constituency,the ties remained and over the years formed into a bond with the Zionist movement as he staunchly supported the 1917 Balfour Declaration, and, in his different ministerial positions and from the wilderness of opposition, fought against the attempts by various British governments to relinquish its commitment to establish a Jewish national homeland in Palestine.
(Excerpt) Read more at haaretz.com ...
How much easier would it have been for Israel to establish itself, had Churchill not been defeated by Atlee in 1946.
maybe Israel can obtain permission to use the bust of Churchill that used to be in the White House before O sent it packing back to the UK?
A subtle middle finger to the Kenyan Kommie.
This was a year ago.............
Didn’t Churchill impose the White Paper cutting off Jewish immigration to pre State Israel? It is no surprise that he is no hero in Israel. The blood of six million Jews is partially on his hands.
The First action the occupier did,if memory serves me correctly.
I got a shiver up my leg,,,
November is only 5 months ago. Make it 6 if you want.
Churchill’s rhetoric was better than his actions. Both he and T.E. Lawrence (also not antisemitic) established that artificial country of transjordan — now called Jordan.
Realistically, antagonizing the Arabs too strongly was not an option for the British when they inhabited so much strategically valuable land (oilfields, Suez Canal etc). People in positions of high office cannot afford the luxury of idealism and ideological purity. I’m a big fan of Israel btw, but realistically, what could Britain and Churchill have done under the circumstances? Especially during the war when Britain was hard pressed and couldn’t afford to spare troops to contain some pro-nazi Arab uprising against British rule and any nascant Jewish state in Palestine.
Let’s not get too excited about Sir Winston.
He may have been an effective British leader in WWII, but he didn’t give a damn about the Jews that perished in the Nazi concentration camps.
He also sold Eastern Europe to Stalin.
Give a damn or not, Churchill was the junior partner in the Western Alliance after D-Day, and Roosevelt used Stalin to keep Churchill in his place in both Teheran and at Yalta. Want to fix the date of the end of the British Empire, It was when the British failed consistently to reach their strategic objectives in the days following the landing on D-day. Monty no longer had the junior officers he needed to execute. They were all dead or in hospital or invalided out.
This one appears to be much larger... and the timing couldn’t have been better.
take that, Barry...
(Nana pokes out her tongue and screws up her cute nose)
No the end of the British Empire was in WWI and General Allenby..
Not quite. Not until 1931, when the Brits dropped off the gold standard, did it become clear that the financial center of the world was never again going to be London. Lend lease put paid to all that, and the Brits became our mercenaries. They and the Russians. Without them we could not have fought both the Germans and the Japanese. Just imagine how differently things would have gone if the Germans had been able to invade England in 1940.
It wasn’t an issue of Israel at the time it was six million people who were not given a way out of the Nazi death machine. I understand your point and he sacrificed his own people in Coventry as he sacrificed the Jews of Europe. That may be understandable but don’t expect the sacrificed people to worship him.
I think its a bit strong to say he ‘didn’t give a damn’, he was trying to juggle a lot of balls.
Also, it was Roosevelt who sacrifice Eastern Europe to Stalin. The British where much weakened by the war, but Churchill was under no illusions about what a monster Stalin was, but Roosevelt was too naive to see that, and viewed Churchill as an archaic imperialist and didn’t really take what he had to say seriously.
If Churchill had led America instead of Britain, Stalin might not have grabbed so much of Eastern Europe.
Was there anything stopping the Jews from seeking sanctuary in Britain or elsewhere other than Palestine under Churchill?
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